Waters

After testing the competitive waters, KeySpan Energy saidyesterday it signed a two-year asset and supply managementagreement with Coral Energy. Under the deal, Coral will assistKeySpan in managing all the upstream assets of KeySpan’s gasutilities as well as the fuel supply for KeySpan’s Long Islandgeneration plants. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.The contract was awarded following an 11-month review ofcompetitive bids from multiple marketing and trading companies.

They might both be majors, but Chevron U.S.A. Production Co. andShell Exploration & Production Co. still think it’s wise to notgo it alone in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The companieshave agreed to share drilling rigs and jointly drill twoexploratory wells there this year.

With the Independence Pipeline project continuing its strugglethrough the landowner gauntlet in the Midwest and through thelonger-than-average regulatory review at FERC, Coastal Corp. isattempting a different approach for its proposed Gulfstream NaturalGas System in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. The company plans toget the word out to local officials early and claims it wants asmuch public input as possible prior to filing an application withFERC this fall.

With the Independence Pipeline project continuing its strugglethrough the landowner gauntlet in the Midwest and through thelonger-than-average regulatory review at FERC, Coastal Corp. isattempting a different approach for its proposed Gulfstream NaturalGas System in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. The company plans toget the word out early and claims its wants as much public input aspossible prior to filing an application with FERC this fall. It hasdrawn a preliminary pipeline route on a map and scheduled severalopen houses to discuss the project with landowners, localofficials, regulators and anyone else who’s interested.

Chevron and its Project Genesis partners made the first movetoward positioning the 28,700-ton hull of the Genesis drilling andproduction platform in waters 2,600 feet deep in the Gulf ofMexico, 150 miles south of New Orleans. Project teams from ChevronUSA Production, Exxon, PetroFina, and contractors last weekup-righted the 705-foot cylindrical steel hull, which will be thefoundation for the entire platform. The hull arrived by barge fromFinland earlier this year and was floated into position from itslaunch site in Ingleside, TX.

The FERC majority voted yesterday to once again submerge itselfinto the “familiar, yet very rocky waters” of pipeline regulationon the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Specifically, it initiated anotice of inquiry (NOI) into alternatives to the Commission’spresent method of exercising its jurisdiction over offshorepipelines.